By Nico Pointner and David Nau, dpa.
A 40-year-old man drove a car into a crowd in the south-western German city of Mannheim on Monday, killing two people and injuring 11 others in what authorities are calling a targeted attack.
The driver, a German national who is in hospital with injuries, is being investigated for murder and attempted murder, Mannheim’s senior public prosecutor Romeo Schüssler said.
Law enforcement officials have ruled out a political motive but said that the man deliberately targeted his victims.
Schüssler said there was evidence suggesting he suffers from a psychological disorder.
Andreas Stenger, president of the State Criminal Police Office, said that the driver shot himself in the mouth with a blank-firing pistol as he was being taken into custody. His condition in hospital is stable.
Authorities said the man has a criminal record, including an assault conviction that led to a short prison sentence more than a decade ago, as well as a case drunk driving.
The most recent crime was a hate speech offence from 2018. He made a comment on Facebook and was given to a fine.
Schüssler said the man has worked as a landscape gardener in the past but that it was not known whether he is currently employed. He is single and has no children and no partner, Schüssler said.
Car sped down street in city centre
The attack took place in the afternoon at Paradeplatz, a busy city square in central Mannheim, a city of approximately 320,000 people that lies about 80 kilometres south of Frankfurt.
Witnesses reported seeing a car speeding down Planken street, a major shopping thoroughfare, before striking pedestrians near the square.
Emergency services responded swiftly, and Mannheim University Hospital activated a disaster and emergency plan to treat the injured.
Authorities said on Monday evening that an 83-year-old woman and a 54-year-old man were killed, with 11 others injured, some of them seriously. No children are known to have been injured, Stenger said.
Attack during Carnival season
The incident occurred as Germany marked its Carnival season, with a market of food stalls and rides set up along Planken street. In response to the attack, Mannheim authorities cancelled several planned Carnival events, including parades in the suburbs of Feudenheim, Neckarau, and Sandhofen. The nearby city of Heidelberg also scrapped its Carnival procession.
Mannheim Lord Mayor Christian Specht ordered flags on municipal buildings to be lowered to half-mast. “This horrific, inhuman attack on peaceful people has deeply shocked us all,” he said.
A string of deadly car attacks
The Mannheim car-ramming follows several recent deadly attacks in Germany involving vehicles. In December, six people were killed when a driver ploughed through a Christmas market in Magdeburg. Just last month, a man rammed a car into a group of demonstrators in Munich, killing a woman and a child.
Mannheim itself was the site of violence last year when a suspected Islamist stabbed five participants at a rally organized by the anti-Islam Pax Europa movement. A police officer later died from his injuries.
Politicians offer condolences
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed his “deepest sympathy” to the families of the victims. “It is terrible what they have to go through,” he said in a statement posted on X. He also wished the injured a speedy recovery and thanked police and emergency responders for their swift action.
Friedrich Merz, Germany’s presumptive next chancellor, also reacted to the attack. “My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he wrote on X. “The incident — like the terrible acts of the past few months — is a stark reminder that we must do everything we can to prevent such acts. Germany must become a safe country again.”
“To all people in Mannheim, especially to the relatives of the victims of this act of violence, to the German people: France is on your side,” President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X in both French and German.
Source: dpa.com